St. Lawrence County IDA moves offices

CANTON  The St. Lawrence County Industrial Development Agency is moving this week to Canton Industrial Park  the first of two tenants in the business development the IDA created  which frees up space in the countys Human Services Building.

Through the Regional Economic Development Council, the IDA was named the recipient of a $470,000 state award to pay for water, sewer, utilities and building construction.

The award enables us to put infrastructure in place that makes this location competitive, IDA Executive Director Patrick J. Kelly said. When the IDA, village and county reached agreement that we would take over this parcel, we did so with the plan of developing a business park. The application was done to fulfill that plan.

Along with the IDA, the other tenant moving into 19 Commerce Lane is a microbrewery developed by Kenneth M. Hebb and his wife, Katrina G.

St. Lawrence Brewery was also included in the recent round of economic development grant awards and will be the recipient of $65,000 to install an energy-recovery system in the brew house and to purchase a fuel-efficient vehicle for sales staff.

It seems like the kind of business that has a lot of potential, Mr. Kelly said. They are in the process of moving in.

The building has an additional 6,000 square feet available.

Weve had some discussions with people, but theres nothing final. Its one step at a time, Mr. Kelly said. The rest of the park needs to be developed.

Much of the IDAs furniture and boxes were moved Wednesday from the Canton Human Services Building on Route 310. Staff began unpacking and setting up their new home Thursday. Telephones, computers and other information technology will come next.

Its a quiet week in terms of business activity, Mr. Kelly said. Well start the year fresh.

The IDAs move leaves 3,590 highly visible square feet available in the Human Services Building, where it will stay vacant while the county completes a space study.

In the short run, that will be empty, Governmental Services Director Michael J. Cunningham said. It makes sense to get it back in productive use.

Once the countys Certified Home Health Agency closes, Public Health also will need less space in the building.

The county has gathered information from its departments on who needs what  such as confidential meeting rooms, additional storage or a more efficient layout  and has some long-standing issues, including handicapped accessibility for the Board of Elections, now in the Surrogates Building.

The county held off on having recommendations from architects until the 2013 budget was finished.

We didnt know if there would be a lot of changes in department size, Mr. Cunningham said.

Shuffling office space can be tricky because some departments prefer to be close to each other, such as Probation and the courts.